Safe to mix this ram with another one from another brand?

razaga

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Aug 18, 2021
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Hello,

I have a single stick of this:

Amazon

I need a little more ram, I think even a 4gb stick would suffice me(though probably not ideal, due to no dual channel).

Kingston seems to have stopped manufacturing this module of mine and the price of it has increased. Would it work if I were to buy any other ram to use with it? Price of parts has gone up in my country, so I don't feel like buying a new kit.
 
Hello,

I have a single stick of this:

Amazon

I need a little more ram, I think even a 4gb stick would suffice me(though probably not ideal, due to no dual channel).

Kingston seems to have stopped manufacturing this module of mine and the price of it has increased. Would it work if I were to buy any other ram to use with it? Price of parts has gone up in my country, so I don't feel like buying a new kit.
There are a lot of variables, but if you make an effort to match as many of the specs as possible it will likely work.
You should expect it's likely that you will not be able to run the RAM at advertised speed to prevent disappointment.

What CPU? This might be important.
 
There are a lot of variables, but if you make an effort to match as many of the specs as possible it will likely work.
You should expect it's likely that you will not be able to run the RAM at advertised speed to prevent disappointment.

What CPU? This might be important.

Oh, yes. I'm aware I may not be able to run it at max speed.

I'm running a i5 9400f + Gigabyte H310M M.2 2.0

This upgrade is mainly to stop the stutters in COD Warzone, since it uses a lot of ram(that's why I think another 4gb may suffice). Though I'm not sure 12gb in total would cut it for a game like Battlefield 2042 or something just as demanding, so it would probably be better to get another 8gb stick.
 
If you can match up something else with the same speed, timings and voltage you should have a good chance of getting it to work. I would stick with another 8gb module so you dont find yourself in the same situation in the future.
 
Oh, yes. I'm aware I may not be able to run it at max speed.

I'm running a i5 9400f + Gigabyte H310M M.2 2.0

This upgrade is mainly to stop the stutters in COD Warzone, since it uses a lot of ram(that's why I think another 4gb may suffice). Though I'm not sure 12gb in total would cut it for a game like Battlefield 2042 or something just as demanding, so it would probably be better to get another 8gb stick.
Dual channel is huge for gaming.
don't even think about a 4gb stick... In fact you would likely have better performance taking your 8gb stick out, and replacing it with 2x 4gb sticks (not recommended still, just get the 8gb stick).

It may be possible to use 8gb and 4gb sticks in dual channel, but it requires some special features on the motherboard and may not be well supported (read, likely to not work, just get the 8gb stick).

match the spd, and timings as best you can, and if one has looser timings than the other, put it in the first (likely 0) dimm slot (also read your mobo manual, it will tell you things).
 
Typically what causes incompatibility is having different ranks on the DIMMs (Single rank, dual rank etc..).

This isnt always true, but generally if a DIMM has memory chips on only 1 side, then its single ranked. If there are chips on both sides, its dual ranked, but you would have to check with the manufacturer of the DIMM to verify that. Sticking to the same capacity/model is a pretty good way to guarentee that your DIMMs have identical ranks and other things like secondary/tertiary timings which might not even be visible to you in BIOS.

I say get another 8gb stick, though I have had good luck with retaining dual channel memory while using mismatched sizes/brands just by keeping the rank the same across all DIMMs.
 
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I've been using some super mixed ram for years and aside from X370 and Ryzen 1700 launch woes i've never had problems with it. (My current setup is mixed speed 2x16 SK Hynix single rank W/RGB and 2x16 dual rank Samsung.)

I was using a mixed 48GB setup for quite some time until I started running out of RAM at 48GB and upgraded it to 64GB (Also so I could use that other 2x8 kit in another machine.)

I don't try to push my RAM super hard though, i care about capacity more than speed.
 
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